With hoax stories from illegitimate websites or unreliable personal blogs going out of control, there is growing concern that fake news is likely to be a swaying factor in the upcoming presidential election.

From a presidential candidate to a popular TV news anchor, a number of high-profile figures have recently fallen prey to falsified stories.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's withdrawal from the presidential race was a case in point. He decided to give up his shot at the presidency after a couple of fabricated stories put him in hot water.

The real problem is that people, particularly young people more exposed to social media, the main medium of fake news dissemination, have little ability to tell fabricated news from real.

This has called for content creators and social media to come up with measures to cope with challenges caused by fake news.

"The side effects of fake news are great, as it has not only damaged the honor of the victims, but also undermined the credibility of social information and the formation of a sound, rational public opinion," acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said during a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday.

Then a question is cropping up. How persuasive or powerful is fake news? Will it be a dominant factor that can change voters' minds in an election?

It is hard to answer this question because it is simply impossible to track down every person to figure out how fake news affects his or her decision-making process.

Korea's presidential candidates and political parties may have to take a cue from the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

President Donald Trump has been at the center of the "fake news" debate before and after the 2016 election. He has waged a war against the media claiming that major news organizations, including CNN and New York Times, are "fake news."

The hottest issue was whether fake news had an impact on the outcome of the election. In other words, did Trump benefit from the surge of fake news during the election campaign?

A recent study released by economists Matthew Gentzkow of Stanford and Hunt Allcott of New York University shows that Trump, in fact, was the beneficiary of the surge of fabricated stories.

According to the study, in the three months before the election, 115 pro-Trump fake news articles were seen a total of 30.3 million times, nearly quadruple the number of 41 pro-Clinton fake news articles seen 7.6 million times.

"Non-traditional content providers are better at personalization than traditional news organizations," a U.S.-based source said on condition of anonymity. "News consumers spend less time to research news than other products they consume."

He added, "Prominent public figures use the term to refute facts they do not like, lending potential validity to the idea fake news is common."

A recent analysis by BuzzFeed, a New York-based media company, shows fake news may go viral faster than real news.

According to the analysis, in the final three months of the U.S. presidential campaign, the top 20 fake news stories from hoax sites generated 8.7 million shares, reactions and comments, while the top 20 genuine news stories generated 7.4 million shares, reactions and comments.

In particular, during the period, the top fake election news stories on Facebook were found to produce more engagement than the top stories from mainstream media, including the New York Times and Washington Post.

Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world, meaning it could be more vulnerable to a fake news crisis.

No matter who will become the next president, fake news will be one of the fiercest issues in the upcoming election and is likely to have a bigger impact on the outcome than it did in the U.S. presidential election.